After Match

I was planning to go to the top gun Shootoff this morning, but ran out of motivation.  Instead I did some packing, took care of cowboy gear, cleaned the long guns, went out to lunch with Mike & Becky.  Then Mike and I went for groceries.

Came back and went to the pool to join Joe, Pat and Carlene.  I’m going to miss this pool!  Of course we are leaving the hot weather behind tomorrow.

Pat made supper for us, grilled salmon & little potatoes with some salad.

We are heading north tomorrow to a camp ground in SC, and on to Belton SC the next day for the next shoot.

We didn’t take any photos today.  Maybe tomorrow!

Second day of main match

Another hot humid sunny day.

But it was a good day to be out on the range.  And I shot it well.  Clean Match, no misses, no penalties.  I haven’t open that in a couple years.  And took third place in my category.  I shot with the guy who won it.  He is very good. I don’t know the guy who took second.  Plus we had a very good dinner banquet.

This was a nifty prop design. The table hinges at the bottom of the front two legs, so it tips over easily.  The pistols are staged on the second table under the first. 

The early morning shooting straight into the sun was interesting.  You could barely see the targets after the first shot.  This is using black powder. 

First day of the main match

This was a very busy day.  It’s now after 1030 and I’m just getting to this.  We shot 5 stages this morning and after an hour & 1/2 lunch (very long waiting line) I got home to clean a couple guns than back to the range for a meeting at 4.  Then Joe and I went to the host hotel where the others joined us.  It was side event awards and a casino night.  The ladies went home while the guys played blackjack.   Any chips held after playing went in a raffle for a derringer.   The winner was the young fellow who camped beside us at EOT, Jake The Ace. 

First day of shooting

The Last Stand, Florida State Championship

Side event day.  We shot Wild Bunch 4 stage mini match this morning and the tune Black Powder 4 stage mini match this afternoon.   The schedule was a rich tight. No time in between the two events for lunch.  Just went back to the truck to change gear and get the different guns and go right back at it.  And it was hot.  And humid.  Around 90°.

Gun E Bear, Dakota Joe and I had lots of fun and I was happy with my shooting.  I wasn’t clean, missed a couple shots on a small target in the last stage of Wild bunch then got a procedural on the last stage of the BP match. I shot the pistol the same way I shot the rifle.  That’s correct most of the time.  Not always.  Like today.  

Back at camp Carlene had the AC running so the camper was cool. Nice for cooling down. The some gun cleaning and beverage to cool down some more.  

Later this evening after supper and around sunset the 6-8 of us we relaxing in the even ing coolness, looking at stars and talking.  It’s now 9 and the last one has just left.  

I’ll finish this and head in too. 

And sunset at camp

Settling in

Easy morning, I wanted to get the cowboy gear settled while it was cool.   Well, that didn’t quite work out because it was warm all night so there never was a “cool” part of the morning.  Nevertheless I got the truck rearranged and the garage rearranged with all the clothes and gear accessible.  Room in the truck for Mike’s gear and mine. He is riding with me so he can leave his Jeep for the ladies to use.

Dakota Joe arrived at noon and got settled too.  Then we all went tot he range to get our registration goods and look around.  We checked the 10 stages, they look good and should be fun.  We also toured those half of the vendors who were open and made a couple purchases.

Mike cooked and hosted dinner for all of 8 of us.  Tasty as always!

Despite all of that neither of us took a single photo all day.

It’s nice out now.  Cool and comfortable.  We are sitting on the campsite patio.  

It looks like the moon and Jupiter are in conjunction.

Missed this one last night

She really just wanted to swim today

We left her in the AC cooled trailer when we went to the range

Actually just a gratuitous Skye photo

Gainesville FL until April 7

A nice short drive to the Santa Fe Palms RV Resort.  Met Gun E Bear & Becky here, camped right beside them.  ET & Dawn are across the road and Dakota Joe will be on the other side of Mike tomorrow.  Also met Canby & Doc while walking around the neighborhood.

We went out to the pharmacy and grocery shopping this afternoon.  Had to get breakfast supplies for the cowboys for later this week!

It seems that the range is only 10 minutes away, that’ll be nice.

It was a bit foggy this morning but it cleared up soon.

The only sunset color we had was in the east!

Mike cooked supper and then brought out some excellent birthday cake!

Tallahassee day

Not much of a rainy day until late afternoon.  We did camp stuff in the morning and then went out to a good lunch.  The Crafty Crab is a nice little restaurant with a lot of good seafood offerings.  I had a delicious shrimp boil, medium heat Cajun  seasoning  with corn on the cob and a few baby potatoes all done in the seasoning.  10 big shrimp, ate them all!  Carlene’s catfish, sweet potato fries and hush puppies was also very good.

After lunch we found the Lafayette Park with a nice trail going around the Piney Z Lake.  The Lafayette Heritage Trail.  A 3 mile loop.  Skye wanted to get wet but it was too late in the day, again.  Lots of birds around the trail.  Carlene had Merlin (her bird song app) identifying them up to 6 at a time.

A quick fuel and milk stop on the way back and then it started to rain.  Really heavy steady rain with plenty of Thunder & Lightning.  Made it home to close the windows before things got too wet.  It didn’t last all that long.  And now there are five more campers here.  

The boil is served in its cooking bag

And Crab Rangoons

This is a fishing finger, a sprit of land jutting out into the lake to increase available shoreline for fishing.

A pair of geese on a finger

This big boardwalk was on the north side of the lake

This boardwalk is built like a trestle!

And for good reason.  The boardwalk goes over the railroad.  

We were just in time for this train to pass by

This water fountain and dog bowl were at a trail intersection